Montana Fragfest

I’ve always liked Valve, especially the Team Fortress 2 team. They have done an excellent job of keeping things stylized, funny, and super fun. The latest sniper/spy update though was the teams first REAL dive into low brow humor that I don’t think fits them.

Seriously? A jar of piss?

Here at Montana Fragfest I’ve been known to have a “potty mouth” and “say things that are inappropriate” but that is a tone and a style that I set for myself. The recent update has had Valve really dive into a style and tone for TF2 that has never been there before. This game has always had cartoony violence, silly characters, and odd weapons but “Jarate” (a jar of urine that you throw) is below them. Jokes in the “Meet The Spy” video such a spy getting it on with the scout’s mom and “now he’s here to f*ck US” just don’t fit the attitude that has been established in this game thus far. Even the scene where the blue spy’s head gets blown off seems out of place.

Grow Up

One reason I’ve always loved Team Fortress 2 is the subtle humor. The team was always very clever about doing things, and these recent oddities just seem like a lazy 12 year old’s attempt at humor. I ask the Team Fortress group to tone it down. Get back to being clever! It’s what made me like you so much in the first place.

While most of us were expecting to see the fourth installment of the Sniper Update today, Vavle pulled a dirty move and announced that we were actually getting The Spy Update this cycle.

The Dead Ringer Spy Watch

The have brought back the feign death ability from Team Fortress Classic with the Dead Ringer Spy watch. What this watch does is feign death when you are hit with a body shot, leaving a fake dead body on the ground and cloaking you for 8 seconds.

While it’s great to see the feign death ability come back, I just don’t see a large amount of practicailty of it.

The Cloak and Dagger Spy Watch

Not really clear if this is an unlockable or just a replacement of the regular spy watch, but it allows the a cloaked spy to stop and recharge their cloak. As long as they stand still their cloak will recharge.

This will make quite the change for spys, allowing them to basically remain permanatly cloaked throuhout an enemies’ base.

Valve release part 3 of the Sniper update and the new weapon is: The Razorback. What does the Razorback do you ask? It shocks the hell out of spys who stab you with it on (also in the process heating up their knives for a bit making then unable to stab). It’s downsides? Slows you down, destroys itself when shocking a spy, and I’m assuming will take the place of either your kukri or your submachine gun.

I think it’s useful, but not useful enough to give up a gun or melee weapon. What are your guys’ thoughts?

The second installment of the sniper update came today. It’s addition? A new gameplay type. Basically a payload cart race, which sounds interesting. They also dropped two new arena maps (boooooooring). Check out the update page for the specifics, tomorrow’s reveal should be MUCH more interesting.

Those crazy TF2 folks at Valve have sprung upon us The Sniper Update by revealing a sniper unlock: The Huntsman. Sounds like the huntsman will be similar to the Sniper Rifle (charging shot, headshot are crits) but has the ability to pin them to the wall if you don’t hit the head. The downside will probably be that the projectile (an arrow, duh) will probably have a noticeable speed and arc.

Should be exciting, although the fallout from the scout update has barely susbsided and I still don’t have that damn Sandman.